Brush With Death

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1. Survived I was hospitalized. My brother and sister dropped everything to come and help. They took me to meetings. I have stopped. I will be all right. I can’t give up....
2. Craving Procrastination, But Will Procrastinate Tomorrow Well, what a bloody awful rabbit hole to fall into. Today was supposed to involved delivering choccies to some cycling associates in Kawasaki. But getting up and about with half an hour or so free before Mrs. Kangaeroo was due to head off to work and hanging out with the...
3. Garden of Weedin’ Spring has sprung (for today) at least, and the garden at Kangaeroo Corner looks resplendent thanks to early morning weeding, a mow and planting plenty of new plants. Weather helped, too, with delightful sunshine and warmth as the temperature topped 20 for the first time this year. I had planned...
4. Winter is Here Although it was a glorious morning with clear, starry skies and then a wonderful sunrise, it was bloody freezing, confirming that the long-dreaded winter has arrived. Until now we have been blessed with unseasonal warmth: I wore shorts all weekend and the temperature topped 20 degrees on Saturday. I still...
5. 「Naughty」と「Nice」コリアの五輪メダル表で北朝鮮が豪フリーペーパーに激怒 　オーストラリア東海岸３都市に無料で配れるフリーペーパーｍXが2012年ロンドン五輪メダル表に「Naughty Korea」と「Nice Korea」と北朝鮮と韓国をそれぞれ表示したことに対して北朝鮮の国営通信社である朝鮮中央通信社（KCNA)が猛烈に怒りを示した。 　KCNAはｍXのメダル表が「イジメ」「オリンピック精神違反」「浅ましい」など、同紙を強く批判した。 　「Naughty」は「悪い」という意味が「Nice」の反意語としてよく使われ入るし、その場合「やんちゃ」というニュアンスもある。 　批判に対してｍXが配布されているシドニー、メルボルン、ブリスベーンの各編集長が共同声明を発表した。 　「ｍXはニュースに対しての非礼な解釈がよく知られている。表は、世界が二つのコリアがどのように見られていることをユーモアを込めて示そうとしただけで、北朝鮮でも韓国でも選手や国民に対して軽蔑する意図が全く無かった」といった。...
6. Foo, Gee! May is, for me, the most delightful time of the year in Tokyo, and I was doubly blessed this morning when greeted by the sight not only of Mount Fuji, but with snow on top. Fujisan, that iconic symbol of Japan, is notoriously camera shy and it’s a rare day...
7. Catching Up with Some Old Mates From an early morning to a very late night, I got to spend a day filled with chances to catch up with old mates. Firstly, I raced out to Ueno Park and got to meet someone I originally met while being able to work as a guide for Japan Biking...
8. Sunrises Over Far North Queensland Wet season sunrises over Cairns in Australia’s Far North Queensland. オーストラリア北部にあるクィーンズランド州の北部都市であるケアンズにおける雨期日の出。...
9. Bromocalypse, Now! As fate would have it, I got to ride my Brompton in a post-apocalyptic landscape over the weekend, making for some eerie-looking pics. It’s not the first time I have been able to ride through the area, but it was Brommie’s first chance to do so. Although the scenes appear...
10. Flake News! Tokyo, or at least the hillier Tama part of it, got dumped by a heavy snowfall on Friday, turning the place white. Kangaeroo Corner’s trees, never keen on the cold, struggled with the heavy snow clogging their branches. It did look good, to be fair dinkum. But it was another...
11. Bracing… Unfortunately, the bracing in the title of today’s post refers to readying for what looks like a rough ride ahead instead of the alternative meaning of refreshing. My job search has proved disastrous, and it’s hard to keep trying to convince myself that I should be grateful for the position...
12. Bonzer Bonsai! Given that this site started with the intent of spreading information about Japan and Australia and matters related to these countries, including languages, and then how much focus I have placed on gardening over the past couple of years, it’s surprising that I haven’t had much to say about bonsai....
13. Saving Things For a Rainy Day It’s drizzling and miserable weather today, which provides a wonderful opportunity for an update as my customary lunchtime ride can be substituted. Lots has happened since my last post, but there’s little time to write about it, so this is a bit of a summary of the past couple of...
14. Another One Bites the Dust… It’s no longer possible for me to trust my own mind because I know how utterly unreliable it is, but I got greater affirmation of why I’m so uneasy in my workplace when I learned last night that we have lost yet another very decent person from our working team....
15. 南天は難点…Or, Farewell Heavenly Bamboo! Kangaeroo Corner, our garden, is basically filled with Aussie native plants, but there were a few trees and plants there when we came to live here, and they have largely remained, including the nandina, also known as heavenly bamboo. Unfortunately, her presence in the garden proved far from heavenly. The...
16. Kangaroo Cookies, Tim-Tams, Cakes and Cuppas: Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This Mrs. Kangaeroo whipped up a few culinary miracles (making the impossible look simple and all while not having slept a wink) including kangaroo cookies and Tim-Tams to put the most amazing topping on what was a magnificent day. We welcomed my oldest friend and the person who brought me to...
17. ‘Umble…That’s What You’ve Gotta Be Humility is a trait I desperately seek, but, like Uriah Heep in Charles Dickens‘ masterpiece, David Copperfield, who constantly espoused the need to be humble, I implore myself to be modest, but the only area in which I have consistently done so is my track record in life. For those...
18. Fully Fern-Ished Garden Kangaeroo Corner has now got a fully fledged fern in place, with the amazing Alex Endo planting a dicksonia tree fern this morning. The fern went into the back entrance where the nandina had been. BEFORE Alex, who specializes in Aussie plants and creating gardens filled with Australian native plants...
19. Forget Tiptoeing thru Tulips and Plod thru Paddies Normally, we’d be smack-bang in the middle of the rainy season by now (and we are, officially), but the skies have held off for the past few days, providing great cycling weather which has made for some wonderful rides, including this morning’s through the rice paddies of outer suburban Tokyo....
20. Blowin’ In The Wind Tokyo spring tends to be windy, and it is blowing up a gale in the suburbs of the Japanese capital right now. This morning I got to fly for a few kilometers, backed by a tremendous tailwind. Of course, barring a meteorological miracle, where there’s a tailwind, there’s almost always...
21. Get Off Of My Cloud! Riding today was like floating through the heavens at times, reminding me of one of my favorite songs by the world’s greatest rock band: The Rolling Stones‘ Get off My Cloud. I’d have loved to have been able to keep the scene for myself as I rode through the mists...
22. Wake-Up Call For someone who usually wakes before 4 a.m. daily, the past couple of days have provided some pretty lousy wake-up calls. Professionally, there had been a job eating away at me over the Golden Week holidays and a check this morning revealed I had overdone it as I had suspected....
23. Welcoming In Winter Like it or not, and I’m firmly in the “not” camp on this one, winter is here again, but I’ve been kind’ve happy to see how well Kangaeroo Corner has held up this year as the cold sets in. This year is the second year of our garden and for...
24. Beating Jobsworths with Luck Waking early gave Kangaeroo a slice of luck this morning, enabling a visit to Yakushiike Park in Machida before the jobsworths arrived there and booted him out for bringing his bike. The park is a delight, unbelievably located in the Tokyo suburbs. It has some spectacular wisteria growing on trellises,...
25. Paws and Reflect Possibly the most meaningful part of my Australian seeds experiment arose today when I transplanted my kangaroo paw seedlings. The great experiment, which I expected would result in me proving to have a green thumb and presenting all my gardening mates with exotic plants has proven only that I am...
26. Glad to be Alive Kangaeroo is easy to be critical and cynical, less so to be thankful. Today, he is taking a moment to be thankful for life. Kangaeroo loves life, even though he has largely made a mess of his own until recent years. Life interrupted this week, preventing any significant entry here,...
27. Oops, I Did It Again! After having repeatedly vowed to myself that I would post content with substance that may be interesting for anybody who ever stumbled across it, I’ve gone ahead and posted more sunrise cycling pics because Mother Nature just keeps turning on the stunning starts to the day. After another near-sleepless night...
28. Unrealistic Expectations I’d love to be able to create a bike naturally, and would even be willing to go to term with it inside a womb if need be. (I would need to get a womb first, of course). But it ain’t gonna happen. And like a lot in life, being able...
29. Some of the Cycling Camerawork that can be Expected These are the types of shots that I’ve been able to take of bikes....
30. Satoyama For the past few years, I’ve been very fortunate to live adjacent to (and, more recently, nearby) a satoyama, a little strip of near-wilderness amid the hustle and bustle of suburban and metropolitan areas. Tokyo is the world’s largest city and it is densely populated. Much of the city is...
31. So Close… Mid May, now basically, has become a tantalizing time of the year for me, with most of the spectacular blooming of the gorgeous Japanese flowers like cherry blossom, wisteria and azaleas (to name a few) having ended, but the Aussie plants in my garden not quite ready to spring forth....
32. Decidedly Unpheasant Having passed a lot of Japanese green pheasants along the Tama River in the past couple of weeks, I decided to burden myself with a cumbersome camera. Of course, I got almost no sight of the avian creatures! That’s not quite true: I saw plenty of pheasants, and heard even...
33. Kicking Off 2023 With Central Tokyo Loop And Super Sunshine If nothing else, 2023 sure started far better than the awful year of 2022 did, and eventually led to a wonderful ride focused on a central Tokyo loop. Just as had happened 12 months ago, Kangaeroo headed off on the first day of the year before the dawn. Unlike 2022,...
34. Cold, Wet and Dark Doesn’t get any more archetypically Monday than today….cold, wet, dark and bleak. Kangaeroo wasn’t too keen on getting out on the bike with a huge day ahead. But it was precisely because the day promises to be demanding that dragged him out in the end. Rain had been forecast, but...
35. Laughing All the Way to the Banksia After worrying for literally months, maybe even years, banksia are finally giving me a great boost as they showed signs of thriving now that spring has sprung in earnest. It’s hard to tell which banksia is bringing the most delight. The main hairpin banksia, intended to be a centerpiece of...
36. Thank God for Diet Coke! This week, Kangaeroo was granted the dubious pleasure of eating a glazed donut hamburger. The photo deserves to be listed as full size to stand as testimony to its likelihood of clogging arteries, even among those who haven’t eaten it. This was the Luther Burger, which sells for an equally...
37. Fatal Attraction Following slovenly Saturday where I did basically nothing for the whole day, today has become a bit of sprightly Sunday, being busy from the get-go, with the Death Machine taking a prime position. The Death Machine is, of course, the nickname I give to my Performer recumbent bicyle. It gets...
38. Brommies More Than Just a Mere Bike Several years ago now, I was very fortunate to stumble into buying a Brompton folding bicycle that has fundamentally changed my life and continues to have countless unimaginable effects. I’d already shown signs of developing into an avid cyclist and was using a Dahon foldup bike to slice my then...
39. Dog’s Life We’ve been blessed for the past few days with the presence of Uyu, a gorgeous border collie. Uyu, which means ‘milk’ in Korean, came to stay on Friday night. We weren’t sure if she was actually going to come and stay. She belongs to our son and daughter-in-law. Our son...
40. Open Up Your Eyes, An Everlasting Bud! Kangaeroo’s Aussie seed experiment is moving forward, and today resulted in its first buds. Seedling growth came from an everlasting, a pink, yellow and white flower native to Western Australia. I potted everlasting seeds last weekend in humidity pods. They’ve been growing under lights daily ever since, except for Tuesday...
41. Up There, Kazari! Australian Sports Day was a fantastic event held at Komazawa Olympic Park yesterday, and I got to go and enjoy some of the proceedings that were a decorative display, (or should I say kazari?), of some of Down Under’s favorite pastimes. The day itself was a ripper, starting with explanations,...
42. Big PeopleがなければBig Thingsが揃わない 　オーストラリア各地にある「Big Things」というB級観光名所の正確な数が不明だが百数十件から200件件以上の間は間違いなくある。 　ほとんどの「Big Things」が動物や設置されている地域の名産物などを称えるが、中には「人間」の姿をしているものもある。 　彫刻など芸術性を重視するではなく、ほかの「Big Things」と同じようにコミカルな印象があり、キッシュが中心となっている。 　また、オーストラリアの歴史も「Big Things」そのもの歴史も人間像に見える。 　たとえば、南オーストラリア州都であるアデレードの一角であるメンディンディーという町にBig Scotsman（巨大スコットランド人）がある。 　これは1963年に作られ、事実上オーストラリアの「Big Things」の最も早く作られたものだった（ニューサウスウェールズ州にあるBig Bananaが自称＜初めて＞とも言うだけど、、、）。 　初めてとは言えはっきり言ってイメージとしてオーストラリアと関係ない。 　同じく、「何で？」と思わせる「Big Things」がニューサウスウェールズ州にオーストラリア固有種のナッツであるマカダミアテーマパークにある。 　そもそも変なのは同遊園地のテーマがヨーロッパ中世風のお城だ。 　そして、それらしくかもしれないがオーストラリアらしくないのがお城の真ん前にある医大騎士であるBig Knightだ。 　しかし、そのほか人間像の「Big Things」が国の歴史ともう少しつながりがある。 　 豪経済を昔も今も深い関わり合いがある鉱業を称えるオブジェがみつもある。 　南オーストアリア州カプンダにある鉱山労働者像Map the Minerがある。 　同町がオーストラリア初銅鉱業があり、それを称えるために1988年のオーストラリア建国200周年記念を祝う行事一つとして作られた。 　しかし、2006年にあるティーンエージャーが同像を目立つように軽油をかけ火をつけてから写真撮ろうとしたが、ボヤーとなってMap the Minerを全焼した。 幸いに保険がかけられたため作り直すことができた。 （ちなみに、余談だが、このオブジェがあるカプンダはオーストラリアで最も幽霊が多い町とされているらしい。） 　金が同じような鉱業労働者像の共通点である。 　まず、19世紀半ば頃ニューサウスウェールズ州バスハーストという所に金が見つけられ「ゴールド・ラッシュ」となった。 　今ではバスハースト中心街に入る道路を通ると迎えてくれるのはBig Gold Pannerである。 　砂金を探している男の「Big Things」だ。 　オーストラリアの産業化に重要な役割を果たしたゴールド・ラッシュのキックオフがバスハーストにあったかもしれないが、最も大きかったゴールド・ラッシュがほぼ同じ時期にビクトリア州バララットというところに起きた。 さらに鉱業関係の「Big Things」が以前に掲載したクイーンズランド州ザ・ジェムフィールズにある数箇所も忘れてはいけない。 　またオージーらしく鉱業並みに同国の経済に貢献した農業（厳密に言えば農家だけど、、、）を称える南オーストラリア州ウッディナにあるBig Australian Farmerだ。 　しかいし、このオブジェは他の「Big Things」と違ってあまりコミカルやキッシュな面がなく最も真面目な物だ。 　考えRooの個人的な見解だがこれが「Big Things」より彫刻だ。 　また真面目だけどもっと「Big...
43. Fat-Arsed Friend! Fortune blessed me with lots of wonderful reminders of how lucky I am yesterday, including through a fat-arsed addition to Kangaeroo Corner. We held a garden party for close friends and family, hoping to show off Kangaeroo Corner. A harsh summer, untimely rains and, I think, excessive intervention on my...
44. 豪カンガルー島で動物園が激安販売中 　南オーストラリア州カンガルー島にカンガルーかコアラやエミューなどオーストラリア独特な動物を中心に飼っているhttp://www.parndanawildlifepark.com/パーンダーナ・ワイルドライフ・パークが只今販売中、とnews.com.auが４日付報道した。 　パークは、１００種類以上の動物が住み、面積が約20ヘクタールで僅か豪ドル595,000（約4779万円）で発売されている。 　販売しているエルダーズ・リアル・エステートによる、販売価格が動物の他住宅、お土産屋、バーベーキュー・ゾーン、倉庫や車庫などを含める。 Want to buy a zoo? There’s one for sale on Kangaroo Island, South Australia...
45. Flashes of Brilliance, but Lacking Focus Today’s title was a perfect summation of the photos I took on my morning ride, but could also describe my life to a tee. The skies were spectacular! My photography, not quite so. I am struggling to hold my phone still. My hands shake all the time. I got a...
46. Feel That Groove….Or, Don’t I’ve struggled to adjust to the realities of life over the past few weeks, but waking on this holiday morning and seeing tiny spots of green sprouting up where my lawn used to be has raised my spirits infinitely, even if not leaving me quite as chilled out as a...
47. Waltzing Matildas In The Land Of The Rising Sun Waltzing Matilda is probably Australia’s most famous song and it’s certainly a tune that remains powerfully iconic of Down Under, but has not had the impact in Japan of other Aussie tunes, like say, Click Go the Shears. That’s not to say that Matilda hasn’t made it’s mark. However, like...
48. Blowout! Even Fartilizer Couldn’t Help Well, strong winds have put paid to a lot of my experiment in growing seeds from Australian native plants, and even fartilizer couldn’t help. Gale-force winds daily for pretty much the past week made life tough for the little seedlings on the patio at Kangaeroo Corner. Watering, care, and even...
49. ウルルを登れなくなる 　オーストラリアの象徴のひとつでもあるウルル（昔はエアーズロックと呼ばれている一枚岩）を岩登りが出来なくなる。 　ウルルは、オーストラリアの先住民にとって聖地であり、岩登りが観光活動の一つとなったことはウルルの所有権者であるアナング族にとって昔からの痛みでもあった。 　アナング族は、多くの観光客がウルルを尊敬しないで、聖地でありながら汚しているため、所有権が返還された1980年代から岩登りを禁止しようとしていた。 　今月、「ディズニーランドじゃないよ」と言いながら、アナング族がやっと岩登りを禁止することを宣言した。 　禁止命令が執行するのは2年後となる。 Why we are banning tourists from climbing Uluru ウルルの英語版ウィキペディア（日本語版のページが間違っている情報を掲載している） Uluru climbing ban: A history of disrespect atop the rock...
50. Mystery bag/不思議な袋（ソーセージ） Mystery bag Australian English A sausage. The name comes from the unfounded rumor that sausages are made from scraps of meat and whatever other item can be found wherever they are made, thus making the actual ingredients a “mystery.” Sausages, which are dearly loved as staples of the barbecue, are...
51. 豪キャブラリー：　Nuddy Nuddy Nuddy is all about getting into a natural state....
52. Tour de Gutsing Today was simply magnificent: stunning weather, delightful companions, fantastic bikes and serious gutsing of ourselves. Bromptons ruled the day and it was the common connection between us. Mechanicals slowed down our start, but also opened new doors. Following a slowdown caused by a flat, we got to eat at Hugsy...
53. Everlastings Love! Everlasting daisies have become the first plants I’ve potted after starting to grow them from seed. I planted the seeds in humidity pods on February 19. They germinated in a flash, with buds clearly visible within a week. They were starting to grow too big for the pods, so I...
54. There And Back Again: Oz 2022 Kangaeroo made it back to Oz for a while in 2022. The circumstances behind the trip weren’t the greatest. But the time spent Down Under was fruitful and poignant. Kangaeroo got to catch up with lots of childhood friends. And deeply explored the places that had played an enormous role...
55. Devil Laughs Nobody else but me is gonna understand just how ironic this post is (provided it even makes it onto the site) as I type it out in an MS Word file rather than directly into the blog as I would usually do. With a couple of extra hours available to...
56. Marching Onward March draws to a close today, ending the first quarter of the calendar year for 2023 in what seems a stunningly speedy period. Time is, of course, relative. Each year, the relative amount of time each period occupies in our whole lives is shorter. So. it’s only natural that time...
57. オズのアホ使い 　考えRooの母国であるオーストラリアでは、国名を省略して「オズ」と呼ぶことがある。 　偶然に、考えるRooの生き方は馬鹿な言動が中心となっていた。 　つきましては、「オズのアホ使い」と呼ばれても全然問題ないと思う。 　具体的なことを言えないが、分かる人は分かる。いくらでも成功する機会が与えられ、裕福になれてもおかしくない過去があった。 　しかし、貧乏で終わって、キャリアも何もならなかったというかキャリア事態はなかったというほど達成感がない。しょうがない。 　それはそれでも変えられない。このもんだ。それでも十分。というか、これで満足しています。「オズのアホ使い」らしい生き方をして、最後までもそうだろう。 　結局、考えRooはもう少し考えるべきだったかもしれない。...
58. A Bit of a Roo-ed Shock Kangaroos have always taken center stage in this blog (which I started almost 13 years ago to try to tap into the then recent introduction of Australian English into TOEIC testing), so it was a bit rare yesterday when I had the chance to write about roos but didn’t (albeit...
59. Bested by Busyness Little things in life have kept me scrambling and stumbling in such a way it’s hard to get much else done. Work is always much busier in the warmer months. This year has been particularly demanding as our tyrant boss drove more staff out of the door and their tasks...
60. Brush Aside It’s a sodden May morning, so rather than risk my luck and hoping I’ll be able to brake properly, I’ve spent the morning enjoying the blooming bottlebrush flowers in our garden and being played with by my dinosaur. It used to be my habit to wake and immediately set off...
61. A Pheasant Start to the Morning I got a delightful start to the morning with a not-quite-chance encounter with a beautiful green pheasant near the Tama River. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been fortunate enough to cross tracks with pheasants in a few places. They’re beautiful birds, the males are at least, and I loved...
62. Far Canal! Had No Idea Boating Is This Much Fun! Tokyo is a city built on rivers and streams, and much of its history is built around waterways, yet it took until last weekend to finally enjoy a really decent yakatabune boat ride. I’ve been here for decades and been on cruises and even ridden in yakatabune, which are long,...
63. Big Captain Cookが只今売り出し中 　オーストラリアの英国植民地化に深く繋がっている人物であるジェームズ・クックが意外と豪州「Big Things」仲間入りしている。 　クィーンズランド州北部にあるケアンズではキャプテン・クック・ハイウェイ添えに1960年代に作られた高さ７メートル幅２メートルの敬礼しているBig Captain Cookがある。 　キャプテン・クックは、1770年にオーストラリア東海岸を到達している間初めてヨーロッパ系の人がケアンズ周辺まで行った。その18年後、イギリス人がオーストラリアを入植した。 　実は、このBig Captain Cookも日本との関連もある。元々設置された場所の土地は日本の企業に買収され、解体・撤去するという話しがあり、今では売り出し中だそう。お金も土地さえあれば、誰でも「Big Things」のオーナーになる大チャンスだ！ 大きな地図で見る...
64. Paws to Reflect Having been gifted with the precious opportunity to maintain a garden filled with Australian native plants, one of the highlights of a trip back Down Under last year was bringing back loads of seeds that I hoped to grow and plant. Most of the propagation worked, but once the seedlings...
65. Fountain of Strewth Frozen Over! It’s a gloriously sunny morning today, but bloody freezing, as attested to by the Fountain of Strewth freezing over. Birds are coming to Kangaeroo Corner throughout the day every day at this time of year, largely to enjoy a drink or a bath from the Fountain of Strewth. I broke...
66. F.R.O. 2022 As 2022 draws to a close, Kangaeroo will be glad to see the back of it. There was plenty to be grateful for: a happy marriage, closer relationships with children, excellent friends, a life filled with love, family reunions, delightful garden, a full year of employment, generally good health. For...
67. Well, Wattle Ya’ Know! Spring can never come quick enough, and even though Tokyo had a warm winter, the wait for warmer, brighter weather seems interminably wrong, as symbolized by the blossoming of the wattle trees in Kangaeroo Corner. Although temperatures may have been warmer than average in the 2023-2024 winter, the fully fledged...
68. Sweetie Pies! Australia doesn’t really occupy a prime place in the mind of most Japanese people’s eyes, and the same goes for Australian cuisine. But for a short while, meat pies here were, well, the flavor of the month. オーストラリアは、多くの日本人の目から見ると、あまり重要な位置を占めておらず、オーストラリア料理も同様であった。しかし、一時期、ミートパイが流行ったことがありました。 Meat pies are, of course, probably the Australian national dish, or at...
69. With 10 Thumbs, Odds Were Always For 1 Being At Least Malachite, If Not Green I’m notoriously clumsy, making even the simplest task a monumental one, but having 10 thumbs also increased the odds of at least one of them being green, if not a little shade of malachite. Nah…just kidding….I’m still bloody unco, and trying to prove I’ve got something of a green thumb...
70. Unearthly This morning’s ride was like being on another planet. For a brief instant, it seemed like I was riding into one of those scenes of other worlds in outer space that used to be depicted on the covers of pulp sci-fi books. Unseasonal warmth continues and I still manage to...
71. 豪キャブラリー： Shoot through Shoot through （打って通れば）を聞くと何となく「銃の引き金を引く」ような感覚を起こすかもしれないが、実際にオージー英語でこの表現を使えば一切そういうような意味がない。実は、「打つ」(shoot)と一切関係ない（だったら、なんで使うかと言いたくなるよね、、、）。「出ていく」とか「場を去る」などの意味。Shoot offも同様の意味として使う場合もある、「急いでいく」ような感覚があるが、shoot offのほとんどの使う時がshoot off your mouth（口を打つ！）になり、「しゃべり過ぎ」という意味のだ！...
72. After the Apocalypse…. We’ve just had a wonderful weekend enjoying the pleasures of the Tama Hills Recreation Area, which combines luxurious quarters with wild, somewhat terrifying scenery reminiscent of what a world without humans might look like. It’s the latter that continues to delight me in the bi-annual visits we’ve been fortunate to...
73. Bit of a Wasted Weekend Didn’t do a lot today. Except eat. And play with the bird. Turned out to be something of a wasted weekend. It wasn’t a total failure. Cleaned the house. And got the garden looking good. Including some shopping for new lights....
74. Tour de Kagoshima-Kyoto Day 4: Kurokawa to Beppu Glorious weather greeted the tour today, paving the way for some amazing riding. The group set out from the gloriously quaint hot spring resort town of Kurokawa. Slowly but surely, the riders wound their way through forested areas, driving ever upward until reaching the Kuju ski ground, the highest point...
75. A Seed Of An Idea As I touched on over the weekend, I’ve started trying to grow plants from seed and I completed the first round of the process this morning before heading off on my bike. Dwarf wattle seeds that I soaked in boiling water last night were the final group of seeds that...
76. Biking Beauty I’ve been alternating between busy and broken over the past few days, resulting in fewer posts and less cycling, but still lucky enough to catch some tremendous snapshots of the bike like the ones here. Work has been proceeding at a furious pace as we have not replaced people who...
77. A Fern Native Action Some massive changes at Kangaeroo Corner this week, which is pretty apt for the early summer, but there has been some man-made actions, too, with a tree fern poised to take center stage. As mentioned earlier this week, the nandina had to go as it was killing all the other...
78. The Big Prawnがオージー版「えび魔よ！」 　ニューサウスウェールズ州北部にある海岸町バリナにはまるで宇宙からやってきたエイリアン（それともゴジラ映画に出てくる敵か？）見たいな大きなえびがオーストラリアの「Big Things」の仲間入りをしている。 　数多くの「Big Things」の中、この高さ9メートル、長さ12メートルのBig Prawnが最も人気なオブジェの一つらしい。 　1989年に作られ、当時シーフード市場、おみやげ屋とレストランなどがあったが、時間との連れに朽ちり始まり、2008年には当時オーナーだったが大きなチェーン店に買収して、Big Prawnを廃棄することになった。 　しかし、庶民からの反発が大きく、結局助けれれて、改造された。未だにバリナ町の名所となっている。 　ちなみに、この「Big Things」はオージー英語とも深く関わる。他の英語圏では「えび」がshrimpと言うが、オージー英語ではprawnと言う。このprawnに関する独特なオージー英語表現も多数ある。 大きな地図で見る...
79. Costly Bloody Crash! Kangaeroo’s accident this week continued to have reverberations. Although both Kangaeroo and the bloke he collided with rode away apparently unharmed from their predawn collision, costs have since mounted. The crash gave greater urgency to updating the chain and gear sprocket on La Cangura, which had been showing signs of...
80. Don’t Think! A good mate of mine often quotes William Shakespeare’s Hamlet by reminding me that, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Kangaeroo is prone to over-thinking, and this week is looming as a tough one. There’s plenty on the schedule, both professionally and privately. And...
81. Hopes Raised, Then Razed Today has been another roller-coaster ride for my emotions, having started on a high and now falling into a deep trough. I’ve been keen for today for a few reasons, but mostly because on late Friday night I received an email asking me to apply for a job being offered...
82. Happy Bird-thday, You Pterror! Today is Dino (the dinosaur)’s third birthday. Our little rosy-faced lovebird has been with us for three years, and has been pretty much a constant companion since the early days of the pandemic. She is my best mate, but at the same time, the bane of my life. She demands...
83. Oz Rock Legend Malcolm Young Dies 　豪ロック伝説的な人マルコム・ヤング氏が死去 Rock legend Malcolm Young, co-founder of Australia’s biggest ever band AC/DC, has died. He was 64. 　オーストラリア最大ロックバンドであるAC/DCの伝説的な共同創立者のマルコム・ヤング氏が死去した。64歳だった。 Young formed AC/DC in 1973 with his younger brother, Angus, who remains the only original member of the band still playing. 　1973年にヤング氏は弟であり現在バンドの唯一オリジナルメンバーとして現役のアンガスと共にAC/DCを結成した。 Young played rhythm guitar for AC/DC until he left the band...
84. Sunrise of the Year (So Far!) Mother Nature turned on an absolute bloody ripper of a morning with the sunrise of the year so far, at least as far as I am concerned. The skies were simply glorious as light broke through, blended with the clouds and created a mix of vibrant colors crossing the spectrum....
85. Glowing Mother Nature greeted me with a glorious sunrise yet again today as I biked the Tama River Cycling Road. Most of the ride was in the dark, as is the case at this time of the year just before the winter solstice. But just as I was leaving the path...
86. Japan’s Crucial Role in Turning “Mad Max” into a Global Aussie Icon Turning the clock back 40 years, Japan played a crucial role in giving Australia a leg-up toward becoming a player in the global movie industry. In late 1977, a couple of fledgling Australian filmmakers pooled their meager funds and shot a movie starring mostly unknown young actors and actual motorcycle...
87. Full Seed Ahead! Buoyed by the emergence of buds from everlasting daisies on Saturday and given the gift of desperation on late Sunday afternoon following a weekend of sloth, I planted the last of my seeds from Australia. With “budding” success from the humidity pods I have been using, I got enough confidence...
88. No Paws for Thought Kangaroo paws, the big success story of my Aussie seeds saga, and the one that most mattered to me, reached a new stage in their progress from propagation. Mrs. Kangaeroo noticed that they were crowding the large pot that I had planted them in, and if they weren’t moved they...
89. Spring-Heeled Spring is such a delight in Japan. One reason for that is the blooming of cherry blossoms. For a week or so, much of the company is given a glorious pink carpet as the national flower blooms, transforming often bleak landscapes into spectacular vistas. Kangaeroo spent the weekend cycling Tokyo’s...
90. Lady of the Lake and More Lucky Rides Not much has happened, certainly nothing to really write about, but I have been very fortunate to get some amazing skies that make tremendous backdrops for bicycle photos, including these shots of La Cangura beside a little pond near the Tama River, which evoked an image of the Lady of...
91. ‘You’re Not Taking the Kingswood’…But Japan Did for a Little While On this day 70 years ago, Australia launched a domestic automaking industry at Fishermen’s Bend in Melbourne to produce Holden cars. Not many outside Australia that the Great Southern Land once produced cars, and perhaps even fewer still are aware that Oz exported some models to Japan. These weren’t cars...
92. Wistful Wisteria There’ve been better times than the past week, and hopefully the climbing hardenbergia comptoniana planted today augurs a rise out of the doldrums. I couldn’t sleep, so as soon as it was light, I got out into the garden, moving the lawn, weeding and my efforts culminating in re-potting the hardenbergia...
93. It’s All Happening Here! Pushed for time and all other sorts of resources, Kangaeroo was surprised to note this morning that it had been almost 10 days since the last post on the site. So much has been going on, some of it pretty crucial, that time slipped away. To borrow a turn of...
94. Purple Heys! Kangaeroo Corner is welcoming the slow onset of spring with a little shock of violet offering greetings and warmth in more ways than one. At the moment, our garden’s most prominent flowers are some hardenbergia creeping up a frame and showing off a bright shade of purple and specks of...
95. The Strewth, the Whole Strewth and Nothing But the Strewth… Strewth, work and life are bloody busy at the moment, but I can’t let that stop me from looking after things, which resulted this week in a renovation to the Fountain of Strewth. It was nothing major, but I found wooden letters on sale in the local 100 yen shop...
96. Knackered! Kangaeroo is delighted another working week is drawing to a close as he is absolutely exhausted. Kangaeroo’s boss is a serial power harasser. The boss’s gnawing attacks on co-workers have driven away every single colleague bar Kangaeroo since their employment started. And the boss has gone out of their way...
97. Lots. And Nothing All sorts of things have been happening, but also nothing at all. I hope that doesn’t seem too strange? The “all sorts of things” are just day-to-day events that keep me busy. And there was yet another clash with my boss, this time leading to her humiliation. I could have...
98. Glistening… Today greeted me with the pitter-patter of raindrops (and a hefty dose of demotivation), so I spent the predawn hours vegging out with the idiot box on and gazing into the garden, appreciating the raindrops glistening on the leaves. In days of yore, I wouldn’t have been deterred by the...
99. Plugged and Unplugged Project Plants was temporarily unplugged because of overloading just as I’d been able to plug in again on another aspect. Mrs. Kangaeroo gave a frantic phone call as I headed off on an afternoon ride to say that the humidity pods containing the Aussie plant seeds were emanating an awful...
100. Let There Be Light This morning I got an entire ride in the light for the first time this year. I still had lights on my bike, but they were the flashing type that enabled me to be seen instead of the high-lumen shiners that all me to see. It was lovely to be...

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